


The Last War: An Oral History of the Reaper War

by Wasfiyah



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Destroy Ending (Mass Effect), Documentation, Gen, Gen Work, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-20 22:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30011649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wasfiyah/pseuds/Wasfiyah
Summary: A series of interviews with various survivors of the Reaper War nearly two decades afterwards
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Dar Volutus – Dar Mindon, Vol Protectorate**

_I met the former Turian councillor, Sparatus Stultius at his apartment. It’s a newly constructed 30 storey prefab. It stands out against the smaller and less imposing flats just outside of the city of Dar Volutus, on Dar Mindon, a planet of the Vol Protectorate. Dar Mindon was fortunate to be one of the least populated of the Volus colonies, it was largely spared, and like most volus worlds the planet contains high levels of Ammonia and higher than normal pressure for most non Volus to survive, so the apartment has a three step process to enter. The newly constructed prefab was built to house the large numbers of Turian refugees, Sparatus is one of them. A Volus inside of their environmental suits greets me at the door, he apologizes for not having any Levo -Amino based food to offer me. He brings me to a bedroom towards the back of the apartment, there is a small bed surrounded by medical equipment. Years of political and diplomatic experience have not failed Sparatus, he swings his legs off of the bed, grasping a cane he shakes my hand in the commonly accepted human greeting. He gestures for me to take a seat, and he sits in a well worn green chair across from me, and I set up my holo recorder. I cannot help but notice the formerly towering Turian, is now a frail shadow of his former self._

**So you were one of the first people to learn of the Reapers?**

You say that like what we learned was obvious, but yes, Commander Shepard reported some evidence of a highly advanced, ancient, artificial intelligence from dark space after the destruction of Saren’s research base on Virmire.

**You didn’t believe the Commander?**

_[Sparatus shifts himself in his seat, twisting the cane]_

Listen, what kind of precautions should we have taken at that point? We got some hearsay from an overzealous, newly minted Specter who was under tremendous stress.

**But there was other evidence, ruins, the Prothean records?**

Yes, more hearsay. Ancient texts talk about the end of the world, doesn’t Earth myths have those too?

**But the council saw more than hearsay during the Battle of the Citadel?**

Yes.

**Publically, the story was largely blamed on Geth, with Saren Arterius as the leader?**

Yes, that was the story we went with. It seemed to largely coincide with the facts.

**Privately, you had doubts?**

Privately? We [the Council] never agreed on anything, sometimes I thought 90% of my job was arguing with Councillor Valern. We were unanimous that the public story wasn’t completely accurate, there was something about that ship. But we couldn’t have the entire galaxy in a panic and the extranet spiraling into chaos over misinformation.

**But you could have started preparing-**

For what? An invasion that could maybe happen? We’re elected officials, we are beholden to our constituents and we have every credit, every chit checked for expenses(1). You can’t sharpen your claws without some military brown-noser asking if you bought the file with their tax dollars. We did what we could, we created a secret task force that investigated anything that might lead to information about the Reapers.

We found close to nothing, some vague conspiracy theories, a few crackpots and a handful of information that we didn’t know what to do with.

**Like what?**

We came across information on an ancient ship out in Batarian space. I think it was called the Leviathan of Ur(2) The Batarians are tight-lipped about it, but they would deny the colour of the sky. The rumour was that it was a Reaper ship, it certainly seemed to match descriptions of Sovereign. That was probably the most fear inducing report we came across, our team we sent to investigate never returned, in fact any research team who went to investigate the ruin never returned. We had chalked it up to the Batarian Hegemony(3).

We also sent a team to investigate the reports of a strange massive ship orbiting some brown dwarf(4). They came across heavy fire from Cerberus agents and Geth, so we never got any good intelligence from that. Still, it was enough to send chills down your carapace. 

**What happened with the information that your team uncovered?**

Nothing. They wrote a report, we filed it and sent it to some of the top brass in the Council Command and Intelligence Agency. I don’t think anyone even looked at it, we send out hundreds of special reports every month.

**You still had your doubts about the Reaper threat?**

It was an election year, and I was already becoming unpopular on Palaven(5). I was viewed as too “human centric” and ignoring Turian affairs. Maybe that part was true, there are still some conservative elements who never appreciated how quickly the First Contact War was resolved and were too uncomfortable with how fast Humans were being accepted into the galactic community. There was a lot of rumbling about the number of humans being accepted into the Turian military, and joint training exercises with the Alliance military. Reaper threat or not, I wasn’t about to start spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a private plan on an invasion that we couldn’t let the public know about.

  
  


**What did you think?**

About the problems on Palaven? I thought there was merit in the arguments, I mean I’m not against Humans, I like humans. I agreed with making a human a spectre, I felt it would help to repair some of that remaining damage from the First Contact War, but I understood the sentiment, Humans went from nothing to demanding council status and the respect that comes with it in a few decades, that rubbed people the wrong way. So I shelved the report. It’s not like the other council members disagreed with me. They were up for re-election too, and we weren’t just getting enough evidence to keep sending out teams and spending so much money on a... what do you humans call it, a wild bird chase. 

**Even though you had a feeling that something was coming?**

_[Sparatus looks at his cane, then outside]_

Yes. I should have done more. I didn’t. Those billions of lives are on me. On us.

I lost that re-election anyway, it was all for nothing.

_Sparatus then says he is too tired to continue this interview and calls for his aide to walk me out. Before I leave I see that his head is visibly slumped over to one side and his hands covering his eyes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 - While an exaggeration, all Citadel elected politicians are subject to Freedom of Information requests for budgets and expenses.  
> 2- Correction: Leviathan of Dis  
> 3 - The Leviathan was discovered by Dr. Garret Bryson, who was killed by his indoctrinated assistant. All mention of the discovery of Leviathan was only recently declassified. Batarians viewed any alien race encroaching near the crater impact as hostile and often open fired on any ship or crew.  
> 4 - The Reaper ship was in orbit around Mnemosyne in the Thorne system in the Hawking Eta Cluster  
> 5- Sparatus’ favourability poll by Khalisah al-Jilani for Westerlund News, reported only 38% of Turians approved of his policies


	2. Eidolo - Quarian Flotilla, Rannoch Orbit

**Eidolo - Quarian Flotilla, Rannoch Orbit**

_Nar’nim Vas Eidolo greets me just outside of the dock after the decontamination that is common among the Quarian people. Very few humans get to ever view a Quarian in real life, fewer still have been welcomed onto one of the ships of the Flotilla. While many Quarians have now attempted to retake and colonize their home planet, many have remained aboard their migrant fleet that is now permanently in orbit above Rannoch. Nar’nim vas Eidolo was the lead mechanic aboard the Eidolo when it was attacked by the Geth._

We were observing the Geth, that wasn’t an uncommon mission. Best to keep your eye on the enemy, lest they get the upper hand on you. It was a few weeks before the destruction of the Alpha Relay that we started to notice that the Geth were acting weird.

**He looks at me before continuing**

Now Geth are always a bit weird, they’re an advanced AI and they can behave in many ways just like living things, but they are very different from us. Normally they don’t stray far from the systems connected to Rannoch, but we started to notice that they were sending small numbers out to dark space. We had all sorts of theories as to why they were doing this. Were the Geth becoming suicidal, was it exploration, radiation disrupting their hardware? What I can guess now is that they had come across some sort of signal from the Reapers. Similar to the Keepers(1), some sort of sleeper cell network had been activated.

But at the time? We had no idea what was going on. If we had some sort of contact with the council, maybe we could have connected the dots.

Weirder still was we had observed Geth attacking Geth, we had never seen that. Never. It was like viewing a civil war, but how could that be? Geth were supposed to be these unfeeling, unthinking machines. Suddenly that story of why the Geth revolted in the first place sprung to mind, I wondered why these Geth had revolted. Of course, some of us wanted to take advantage of the situation and use this to destroy the Geth once and for all.

**People like Admiral Daro’Xen vas Moreh or Han’Garrel vas Neema?**

Yeah, people like them. I guess that’s what cowards are like. Daro’Xen had a real bug in her suit about Geth. She wanted to know everything about them, and take apart every piece of Geth tech. That part isn’t weird, many Quarian engineers spend their whole life researching Geth and their technology, it was her views on them.

**What do you mean?**

There are some of us who simply wanted to fight the Geth, for our homeworld. Some were sympathetic to them, some really hated the Geth, but Daro’Xen wanted to...

_[Nar’Nim holds his hands together tightly, visibly uncomfortable on the topic]_

She had these plans to experiment on Geth, and pressured The Conclave(2) to collect a live Geth specimen. Of course the conclave said no, it was dangerous, and reckless. What would happen if it got loose on the ship? Hacked into our computer systems? She was willing to put thousands of lives at risk for what? So she could torture a machine? Geth... they were dangerous. But I don’t want to torture them, I don’t care if they are machines.

**What happened next?**

Nothing. _[A slight laugh from Nar’nim_ _breaks the silence]_. Really! The Admiral stopped pestering The Conclave, she moved on elsewhere, must have found other friends willing to put more lives at risk. I know she and Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Neema didn’t see helmet to helmet if you know what I mean. But she had friends elsewhere, somehow...

_[Nar’nim shrugs, a universal gesture for ‘I don’t know’]_

She's a brilliant scientist, and regular mechanics like me aren’t. I just wanted a home but...

_[Nar’nim trails off]_

**Did you hear anything about the Geth helping on Rannoch?**

I didn’t see it personally, too busy fixing the guts of these ships. I heard talk, saw a couple photos. I couldn’t believe it you know? You hear all these horror stories about killer machines and here they are helping us take our home back. It just made me hate those admirals more, was everything they said a lie? Were they always our enemy?

So what do I know? All I know is that I wish I could have known more about these new Geth(3).

I would have liked to have known them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1- Soon after the Citadel Council was reinstated in 2188CE several documents became officially declassified in the name of greater transparency. The fact of the Keepers learned by Commander A. Shepard being one. 
> 
> 2- The Quarian Conclave is a civilian representative council that represented Quarian people, before the successful conquest of their homeworld it was the government on board their Migrant Fleet. 
> 
> 3-It is unknown what occurred aboard the Citadel before the end of the Reaper War, but a shockwave of unknown power knocked out most synthetic life, including the Mass Relays. Thanks to the research done by Matriarch Phaedra and her team most of the most extensive damage was repaired within a decade. However the damage done to the Geth has not been as successful


	3. New Varatium - Gothis

**New Varatium - Gothis**

_ Calatinus Vatriae, a field promoted Turian Captain of the Dreadnaught Invictus. His farm overlooks the rebuilding of the town of Varatium, and the sounds of the farm are filled with laughter and sounds of children. Caltinus greets me at the door, welcoming me inside for dinner. He says not to worry that he made sure not to cook food that could kill me, afterwards he leads me to a small room where he is taking apart an older rifle and gestures to take a seat. He picks up a 5 year old Turian child, and places him on his knee. _

I was coming near the end of my mandatory military service with the Hierarchy, with that comes options. Soon I would have a say in my government, and I could choose what I wanted to do with my life. I could remain in the service, or enter politics, academia, the private sector, or I could do what my great, great grandfather did and  _ farm _ .

_ [Calatinus sneers when he says the word] _

Sorry, that’s how I thought back then. Farming was for people below me, people who couldn’t hack it in the more “real” professions. I had big dreams, I had some offers from a few weapons manufacturers in design and consulting on Illium, I was also considering a career in politics. I was a bit sick of serving in the military, and even though the whole “Duty Before Self” was drilled into the minds of all Turians, I needed a break.

**Did you ever hear any reports on colonies going dark, anything like that?**

Not really, when you’re on board a dreadnaught in deep space chasing pirates you tend to be too busy to pay attention to the extranet. I mean people talked, they always talk. I heard rumours about those human colonies that went missing and some of my colleagues got really spooked. We all have family on far flung colonies, the fact that some human colonists went missing without a trace and that the Alliance was silent on the why was troubling .

**Why?**

We may all be allies, but we as separate races tend to stick to our own when shit hits the fan. You know? At least back then. So it was all talk about “what aren’t they telling us,” of course they weren’t talking because they didn’t want to believe what was happening. It would be months after the destruction of the Alpha relay that shit really started to happen(1).

**What about Vakarian’s task force?**

Garrus Vakarian? He tried to shake up the hierarchy and get us all to prepare. We were asleep at the bridge, we didn’t listen. I mean technically we increased our defensive capabilities, we increased our duty shift rotations, more readiness drills. We were never told why we were doing this, just to expect… something. I don’t blame Vakarian for not doing more, he was going up against thousands of years of tradition and bureaucracy. But we should have been more prepared, but I don’t know how we could have prepared for that.

We started getting reports, mostly reports that managed to be hacked from Geth ships. I didn’t see them personally, I wasn’t involved in intelligence. But I did hear about them, they were tracking ships from dark space and it was heading towards our system. It didn’t take long for the Hierarchy to suddenly take it seriously.

I still remember the first time I saw one. One of their big ones. First, for a second I was in awe of how massive it was, it was beautiful. We had been called to rally back to Palaven, and I remember being shocked at the amount of devastation that had been done in a few short hours. I still see it when I close my eyes. Was it like that on Earth ?

**Yes.**

Yeah, you never get over seeing something like that. Seeing your thousands or millions of years of history and civilization gone, just like that(2). Anyway, we were one of the first waves to attempt to defend the home world. They had problems cutting through our defensives at first, but they were relentless. It wasn’t the military might that took us down, it was our own. Everyone questions their superiors sometimes, I know humans and Asari often think of us as mindless, loyal automatons, but we do occasionally question our orders. But I started to really question the mental state of my commanding officer. I was only a Lieutenant, junior grade, but even the ranking officers started to question when the Admiral wasn’t around, just what the hell was going on. He was making worse and worse decisions, even when we had the advantage he would order us to pull back. When we were overwhelmed he would order us to trudge through. It didn’t make any sense.

**Admiral Mactumus ordered your ship to land on Palaven, even after the Hierarchy had called for withdrawal to the moon Menae?**

Again, we are drilled from birth to “Die for the Cause”(3) . But this was also ignoring orders from the Hierarchy, you just don’t do that. It didn’t make sense, none of it made sense. But, when your commanding officer tells you to land several parties on the ground, you do it. I didn’t like it, but we took several scouting parties down, with the Admiral. 

**You think he was indoctrinated?**

Fuck yes, either that or I must believe that a war hero with decades of experience from a family that was not too far from being in line to be Primarch was incompetent. We’ll never know for sure. How did he get indoctrinated? No idea, and I don’t give a shit.

**Isn’t it true that he was found with a wound that matches a Turian weapon signature on his back?**

[ _ Calatinus turns his attention to his son playing on the floor, taking apart a common Turian puzzle and putting it together again] _

Yeah, a coincidence.

**What happened after Admiral Mactumus died**

Leadership was turned over to the ship master, Vorelia Calpoculus. I respected her, and she respected us. She didn’t take any shit, I think out of all of us, she understood the scale of what was happening. She was very clear that our current way of thinking, our way of life was over.

**What did she mean by that?**

Look, I’m a born and bred Turian, beyond a few R&R trips to the Citadel I have never been out of Turian space. We live by the book, we breathe rules, and order. As much as we know to speak highly of concepts like openness, tolerance, diversity...we don’t live it. We saw ourselves as superior to Humans, we were more brave than the Salarians, and more wise than the Asari. There were times when amongst ourselves we discussed how much better the galaxy would be if we could just run it ourselves. In this war, it made us easy to defeat, they had our rule book. In the end it was our undoing, and it was only by learning to fight together, change, and change our modes of thinking that we were able to win. I don’t think there’s going back for us.

**What happened to Calpoculus?**

[ _ Calatinus makes a chattering noise, similar to the human habit of blowing air past their lips] _

It was towards the end, above Earth. She ordered us to evacuate the ship, the ship was struggling to hold together. She did what any of us would have done, died for the cause(4) . 

**After the war I'm sure you had your choice of professions being a former Turian veteran, why farming?**

I wanted to build something, not destroy it. 

_ [Calatinus turns his attention back to his son, picking him up and embracing him. We share a few more words and he shows me his fields. He says he has a lot to learn, but he’s never been more excited] _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1-The Alliance sent out many advance warnings to Human colonists about a potential, but unknown danger and to evacuate to safer locations. They did not, however, send this information to any other Council species.
> 
> 2- In many ways the destruction of Palaven was worse than the damage done to Earth. Calculation of the cost of damage has reached more than 650 Trillion credits, even with a galaxy wide effort the cost is still growing.
> 
> 3- Die for the Cause is considered by many the unofficial anthem for enlisted Turians
> 
> 4- Eyewitness reports from Alliance ships report that the Exactor-class ship, Invictus in its last moments crashed into a Reaper ship that was attacking the Destiny Ascension, affording them time to maneuver away to safety


	4. Chapter 4

**Menuha Maximum Security Prison - Euler System**

_Menuha was built as a space station in orbit around Benning, a former human colony before the war. It houses some of the more problematic prisoners, some are in the middle of long and complicated extradition cases between two or more jurisdictions, others are housed here because no other system will accept them into their prison systems._

_After weeks of petitioning I am finally granted permission to visit a very important prisoner. I am not sure if the level of security I go through is for my protection or for the prisoner, I am told that the prisoner receives death threats from within the prison and from the general public on such a regular basis that the prisoner has to be isolated with a permanent standing guard._

_I finally meet Irorok Tayal, the notorious Batarian war profiteer who allegedly was responsible for the deaths of upwards of 12,000 Alliance soldiers, and 20 Batarian children from medical supply tampering. I hold out my hand in a human gesture of welcome, Irorok rebuffs it saying he refuses to respect our customs if we refuse to accept his. I reply to ask what the Batarian gesture is, but he does not respond. He does however agree to be recorded and for me to ask questions._

**I'm surprised you agreed to this interview?**

_[Tilting his head to the right.]_ Why Human? I want the galaxy to know why you all deserved it.

**Why did we deserve it?**

My home, my planet, my family didn't - and that's why yours did.

**You're blaming the Alpha Relay incident on all Humans, and that's why you poisoned thousands of people?**

Shepard was part of the Alliance, they acted on behalf of the Alliance. They made that decision, we didn't even get a warning! And I didn't poison anyone, last I checked I was found guilty of making money (1). Apparently in our soft hearted Citadel space that's a crime during a war.

**The Reapers were a mere couple of hours-**

From what human? Invading and harvesting the galaxy? They did that anyway, remember? They came through Vular and [gesturing with his hands, blowing smoke] they all...they all died. Became those things(2).

**Yes, but it was that delay that helped to prevent defeat.**

_[Irorok gestures to the guard with two fingers. The Turian guard slides a pack of Illium Azure brand cigarettes, lights the prisoner's cigarette and then stands back at attention. Leaning back, he gets back into the interview.]_

That's debatable. Billions died that day, in a flash. The Alliance claims a total of 67 Billion, the Hegemony says 90. I say it doesn't matter, it was too many. And what help did we get? Nothing.

**What about the Citadel Batarian Refugee Resettlement Program?**

You mean charity scraps? I think I got an old t-shirt and a tent on Virmire. Did we get a welcome back to the Citadel, a new planet? No care given to our culture, our values, packing all the castes together. Uncivilized, of course we didn't matter to those Citadel elitists. Soon as the Reapers striked we were bottom of the to do list. We lost everything and the Reapers came anyway.

**So how did you get involved in running medical supplies?**

I was an independent contractor for a personal security company(3). Wasn't much different from what I did before the war.

**Did anyone ask where the supplies came from?**

No, why would they? Everyone needed medi-gel, plasma, and eventually when supplies ran low medical science had to go old school with antibiotics, gauze, sutures, saline. I was more than happy to help, the company was sending supplies to those most in need and I could supply it. Most people by then weren't so stuck up to say no to a Batarian supplier.

Of course I didn't know that someone managed to sweet talk several companies to work together for the fucking Alliance. The Alliance. Blue suns, Eclipse, Blood Pack all working for the Alliance? I mean I'm sorry did Karumto freeze over?

**Why did that bother you, the Alliance had heavy casualties by that point.**

This medi-gel wasn't going to sick kids and civilians who didn't do anything wrong. It was going to war criminals.

_[Irorok now has smoked his Azures to the butt, and snuffs his out, immediately gesturing for a light for the next.]_

So that rubbed me the wrong way. No offense to you Human, but I was getting tired of busting my balls to pamper your people. Where were the supplies for my people? These thoughts just kept going through my head. So I refused the contract.

**You sold medi-gel to Alliance soldiers after the failed Battle for Mindoir?**

Don't know the place, like I said - didn't sell directly to the Alliance.

**I have documents that have you directly selling medi-gel and prosthetics to the Alliance directly. You even outbid several other contacts.**

_[Tilting his head to the right again]_ How can I believe Alliance sources? They're obviously faked, I was never there.

**You never visited Mindoir? Not even in 2170?**

What happened in 2170?

_[Irorok gives me an eerie smile that I find unnerving, but he continues to evade direct questions.]_

**You were a pirate-**

Independent contractor.

**You were an independent contractor assigned out in the Skyllian Verge in the 60s and 70s**

One of thousands.

**Didn't you design the type of cranial implants used to control slaves**

Slaves? No, they're indentured labourers. Really human, are you going to try and complain about slavery to me? You and the Citadel's imperial hegemony is such a hypocritical crock of shit. Everyone was more than happy to profit from our company's high profit margins until your people showed up high and mighty.

**Did you design the implant?**

What are you insinuating?

**You had in-depth medical tech knowledge, you graduated from one of the finest Batarian medical schools in the system. It's not a stretch to claim you would have the ability to doctor records and tamper with medical tech.**

I'm a pirate, remember?

**Independent contractor.**

_[Irorok smiles at me again, all four eyes focused on me, he blows smoke in my direction]_

Right.

Being a doctor didn't pay the bills on Khar'shan. Being a businessman did. So that's what I did.

**By designing control implants?**

No different than putting a leash on a varren.

**I think it's a lot different.**

Is it? Whatever you say, Human. Look, a lot of hands are on that tampered medi-gel. It's not my fault that your doctors aren't smart enough to know it had expired.

**The medi-gel wasn't expired it was tampered with.**

So you admit your doctors couldn't tell it was bad?

**The tampering was skillfully done, it was only after it was used to treat thousands of patients that anyone took a greater look.**

Are you complimenting me? Thank you, but it wasn't my work. Sounds more like STG if you ask me.

**You didn't profit millions off of these medical supplies?**

Oh, I definitely profited(4). Why not?

**Obviously we're going nowhere here, but I wanted to ask something.**

Simple minds, sure go ahead.

**The supplies that you sold through the personal security company, to the Alliance was also sold to other groups.**

Yeah, that's not unusual. Subcontracting was common especially if you could make more money selling to someone else.

**Quarter of that medi-gel found its way to a Batarian orphanage on Illium.**

_[Irorok's eyes squint to look at me, trying to read my expression.]_

What does that have to do with me, like I said - I just sold medical supplies. I would ask STG, their tampering and espionage is legendary.

**Because of the Batarian Refugee Resettlement Program, there was a push to move non-emergency stockpiles to civilian refugees.**

Humans don't help Batarians, obviously Alliance propaganda.

**This was an orphanage on Illium, an outbreak of the Asari flu ran through it like wildfire.**

[I pull up the document on my pad, and turn it towards the Irorok]

**The Alliance didn't give the medi-gel to the orphanage directly. They gave it to the Illium government in return for Eezo supplies. The Illium government supplied the medi-gel to Batarian children.**

_[Irorok is strangely silent]_

**Twenty children died from anaphylactic shock. Turned out the gel was designed in such a way to hide that it contained certain Dexto-amino acids that are known to react with Levo-based life-forms like you or me. If this was bought outside of war-time it would probably be caught before being applied but in desperation it was mass deployed.**

That's unfortunate, I don't see what that has to do with me. I am a victim of Alliance propaganda against Batarians. When the Hegemony returns(5), you'll see. They will once again rise up to the strength of the old days and when that happens we'll take your home away.

_[I stand up and again offer my hand. Irorok instead gestures to the guard that he's done. I speak to some of the guards afterwards who express dark humour about Irorok's delusional beliefs about fake news and propaganda. They note that a majority of the death threats he receives are from other Batarians, one reason he is housed in a prison so close to the Human systems. His own protection._

_He is still awaiting trial on an extradition case on Illium for the negligent homicide of Batarian children, most things may be legal on Illium, but poisoning children is often bad for business.]_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:
> 
> 1 - Technically true, evidence that was directly responsible for the tampering of the medical supplies was scant after a fire broke out at a Systems Alliance Navy building, and eventually charges were dropped see: Systems Alliance v Tayal,[2188] 2 SCSA, Vol 98(6).
> 
> 2 - The nickname given by soldiers was cannibals for the Batarian-Reaper hybrids for their habit of consuming the flesh of the dead to regain their strength.
> 
> 3 - Trial transcripts show that Mr. Tayal was a contractor for the Blue Suns, colloquially known as a pirate
> 
> 4 - Trial transcript show profits of upwards of 1 Billion credits in profit from the medical supplies during the war. While most suppliers sold at steep discounts or for no charge, they were the first to run out. Mr. Tayal was able to squeeze many desperate colonies for supplies, illegal under the Thessia Convention, section 82, paragraph 3 -War Profiteering.
> 
> 5 - While a number of inter-system political affairs experts say that the threat from the Batarian Hegemony is minimal, there is evidence of a small Batarian extremist movement who believe that the Pillars of Strength (a holy relic and document) tells them to expand the Hegemony. It is important to note that this is not the opinion of the majority of Batarians who wish to live in peace.


End file.
